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4x5 Ilford Delta 100 sheet film....d76, XTOL or Rodinal?

harlequin

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Apr 30, 2008
Messages
238
Location
Los Angeles/San Antonio
Format
Medium Format
Hello Team,

Acquired recently some fresh Delta 100 4x5 sheet film.

Should I rate the speed at face value or less?

Looking for good tonality and shadow detail with a little bite (contrast)
Looking to use common readily available chemistry

Is it better to dilute d76 say 1:1
With Rodinal is there big difference between 25:1 dilution and acutance say at 50:1?

Does xtol work well with “tabular” films?

Thanks for your input, any photographic samples always appreciated I shall be processing in Patterson Trays.

Regards,

Harlequin
 
Both are excellent. I use Rodinal for what may be an odd reason. The grain in tabular films is extremely fine, and is a little easier to see with my Peak focusing magnifier, so it's easier to focus my enlarger.
 
I've been shooting 8x10 Delta 100 and have been really happy with the results in HC110 Dil:B. I would expect similar results in D-76 1:1.
I generally overexpose 1 stop, so I've been rating it at ISO 50, but I made 2 negatives of the scene below @ 50 and 100, and they both print equally well.
This is a contact print of the ISO 50 negative, printed on Ilford MGRC paper at grade 1.5.

 
Of those 3 developers you'll get the best results from Xtol or Rodinal. both give finer garin than D76 with Tabular films. I shoot a lot of Delta 100 and it's a superb film although I now only use Pyrocat HD.

Ian
 
Once you get into large format the differences between developers like Rodinal or Xtol or D76 go away. Add the fact that Delta is tabular and the differences are even less. Personally I would chose D76 or XTol. If you were shooting traditional grained film and making giant sized enlargements there might be a case for specialized developers. There is a lot to be said for staining developers and films like FP4+. However even saying that, since I started using rotary development I have found that D76 makes brilliant large format negatives.
 
Delta 100 sheet film can be processed with any developer and you will get beautiful results. Something else to consider: Delta is exceptional in Pyro developers.
 

^^^ what he said!
 
My favorite developer for Delta 100 is Clayton F76+ and I rate it at EI80. Nothing wrong with any of the developers you mentioned, though, as others have already said.
 
Delta 100 in XTOL or replenished XTOL is quite good.
 
For what is is worth: I don't like Delta 100 in ID-11 1+3 at all, in Rodinal 1+50 it looks much better.
But I prefer FP4+ in general
 
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